Prearis Saison
Vliegende Paard Brouwers

 

 

A 2014 vintage in the bottle at the brick house pub in Decatur, Georgia
A: Pours with a generous rocky spongy head and a clear light golden body
S:Hints of funk and a clean bitterness, subtle estery notes and light pepper and spice bleeding into the funk
T:There is just enough funk in the beer for it to feel wild without being sour, a great balance, there’s a very prominent maltiness here, the spice and pepper notes are still very much present and after four years in the bottle the bitterness in this beer has held up surprisingly well
M:Medium body but very dry
O:Where a lot of modern saisons leap over the edge into lambic/wild ale territory, but this beer (at least at this age) holds back just enough, I must confess I had never heard of this before reviewing it and thus have never had it fresh, but this is very solid and I would buy it again.

 

Clean, straw colored with creamy white head. Full nose. Bready with spicy yeast and dry hopping. Solid beer. Mild and well-balanced. Good malt, spicy, and slight bitter finish.

Handsome golden yellow brew with an abundance of foam in the Stella Artois goblet. Poured from the 750 ml Belgian bottle. Yeasty, flowery, cereal aroma. Rather tangy in the mouth. Quite drinkable and likable at first sip.

This is a little less fruity than a lot of Saisons. It's more of a wheaty grain taste, but there is a distinct meaty (Umami) flavor that adds to the pleasure. Some mineral and yeasty taste at the finish. This is the classic Saison taste, if you were looking for a benchmark. Cleaner than a lot of the bottled beers out of Belgium but it has enough of that funk.

A: Bright gold color with an airy but lasting head, maybe a half inch thick.
S: Fairly fruity aroma--light bubblegum, pear.
T: Decent initial bitterness makes for a dryer beer than I was expecting, though hop flavor is distinctly lacking, leaving the primary flavor a grainy malt and a pleasantly fruity yeast profile.
M: Light bodied, neutral texture.
O: Not bad, but not good enough I'll ever want to try it again. More flavor and aroma hops would go a long way to making it better.

I was leery of this one because of the lack of reviews. Pretty good.

Thanks to Retsinis for sharing this one at his tasting.

Bottled 2/19/14.

Pours a hazy yellow-orange with a foamy white head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Foamy swaths of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of grain, white grape juice, grape jelly, and slight spice aromas. Taste is much the same with grain, grape juice, fruit, spice, and yeast flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of spice bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and dry mouthfeel. Overall, this is a good beer with nice grape like characteristics all around.

Serving type: bottle.